2000s / Action / Horror / Superhero
by Vincent Leo · Published February 18, 2007 · Last modified February 23, 2019
One of Marvel’s second-tier “superhero” comics combines elements that were popular in the 1970s, including horror influences, motorcycle stunts, and a nomad protagonist who righted wrongs wherever he was needed. “Ghost Rider” wasn’t exactly...
by Vincent Leo · Published January 26, 2007 · Last modified February 24, 2019
The Birds is one of the best “creature features” ever made, possibly only rivaled by Jaws for best ever, though the latter does owe a debt of style to this film. Though not entirely realistic, the visual...
2000s / Drama / Fantasy / Horror / War
by Vincent Leo · Published January 15, 2007 · Last modified July 13, 2018
Set in rural northern Spain in 1944, following their Civil War, Pan’s Labyrinth tells the tale of Ofelia (Baquero, Romasanta), a young girl who travels to a military camp with her pregnant mother (Gil, Belle Epoque) in order for...
by Vincent Leo · Published December 26, 2006 · Last modified July 16, 2018
Although John Carpenter’s 1978 film, Halloween, is widely called by many people the first of the true modern slasher films, many genre enthusiasts point to this little Canadian shocker, released four years earlier, as the one...
by Vincent Leo · Published November 10, 2006 · Last modified April 13, 2021
Poltergeist proved such a success in 1982 that a sequel seemed an inevitability for the financially struggling MGM, whose president, Freddie Fields, regarded the property as a check waiting to be cashed. Tobe Hooper...
After his mother (Lathan) had been bitten by a vampire during her pregnancy, her son Eric, later dubbed “Blade” (Snipes) was born with reconstructed DNA, giving him a mixture of strengths between vampires and humans. At...
Steven Spielberg’s intended follow-up to Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a darker alien-invasion concept called Night Skies. The story idea came during Spielberg’s UFO research, stumbling across the Kelly-Hopkinsville incident in which aliens...
Somewhere underneath all of the nonsense, there seems to be a good movie yearning to break free. Sadly, the script doesn’t even begin to touch on the more exciting possibilities with the main story,...
At the beginning of 1979, comedian Chevy Chase joked to a couple of junior execs at Universal Pictures, Thom Mount and Sean Daniels, that they should combine their two biggest recent successes and make,...
Following Jaws 3D, which had begun as a National Lampoon project to make the third Jaws film a tongue-in-cheek comedy named Jaws 3, People 0.”, the idea came around again for a humorous effort for the fourth...
Reviews from film writer Vince Leo, covering all eras and genres of films from classics to the latest releases.
Film reviews from Vince Leo, from classics to new releases, since 1996.
